


Headlines

by HuiLian



Series: Dick and Dami Week 2019 [2]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Dick Grayson is Batman, Fluff, Gen, Tooth Rotting Fluff, but he's not actually going out as batman in this fic, but with a dash of angst? maybe?, veryyy minor for the commish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 09:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18408299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuiLian/pseuds/HuiLian
Summary: Three times Dick and Damian manages to find themselves on the headline of the Gazette.





	Headlines

**Author's Note:**

> For Dick and Dami week on tumblr, Day 2: Paparazzi. Not quite paparazzi, but eh, close enough.   
> Apologies in advance for the news title. I have discovered something about myself while writing this fic, which is I cannot write click-bait. Don't pay me to write click-bait titles, people.

Dick was used to being in front of the camera. From childhood at the circus to being Bruce Wayne's ward to now being the head of WE. Dick is used to being in front of the camera. The same, however, cannot be said for the eleven-year-old boy sitting next to him. 

"Just ignore them, Damian. Pretend they don't exist."

"How can I pretend they don't exist when they are pointing those cameras at me, Grayson?" Damian hisses out. Frankly, Dick thinks that Damian is doing quite well. There hasn't been any bloodshed, yet. 

"Think of it as a performance, then." Here, Dick lowered his voice. "For now, you're not Robin. Not Damian al-Ghul. You're just a normal eleven-year-old going to have lunch with his big brother." 

Damian rolls his eyes. Fine. Dick can play this game as well. He had played it from the other side years ago. 

"It's a skill all Robins share. I can do it. Jason can do it." With the mention of Jason, Damian's eyes narrow. Time to hit the mark, then. "Even Tim can do it." 

Damian's face scrunched up in determination. He won't pass out the challenge of being better than all the Robins before him. It's not quite ideal, and definitely something Dick shouldn't encourage, but it gives Dick a perfect tool to make Damian do something. 

Damian's posture changes immediately. Dick hasn't even noticed that Damian is holding himself rigid until he all but slouched. (Like all eleven-year-olds do. Like Dick himself had done years ago. He really needs to pay more attention to Damian.) 

The expression on Damian's face changes as well. The tension around his eyes is gone. Even the harsh light that is sometimes all Dick could see behind Damian's eyes disappear. Has Damian been taking acting lessons with Alfred? 

The rest of the lunch went like that, with Damian pretending to be just a normal eleven-year-old boy having lunch with his eldest brother and Dick pretending to be just a normal late-twenties guy indulging his baby brother for lunch. (Dick doesn't have to pretend to indulge Damian. The only problem is that Damian rarely wants to /be/ indulged.)

The next morning, the Gotham Gazette runs a story with the headline ‘The Most Eligible Bachelor in Gotham, Now With Kids!’ with a picture of both of them laughing in the diner. Dick saves the picture (but discards the headline).

***

"Why are we here?"

"Here as in Florida, or here as in Earth?"

"Tt. You know what I mean, Grayson." Such indignance. Unfortunately, with the Mickey Mouse ears that Dick forced him to wear, and the fact that Dick _knows_ that Damian is loving it here, the indignance went largely ignored. 

"You've never been to Disney World! I have failed as your guardian!"

"Tt. You have not failed as my guardian, Grayson." As nice as that sentence sound in his ears, Dick doesn’t want to dwell on that yet. Misdirection, then.

"Of course I haven't. I've taken you here now, haven't I?"

Damian looks like he wants to argue about it, but instead he asks, "What is so special about this place, anyway?"

Dick could tell Damian about his own first visit to a Disney park with his parents. Dick could tell Damian about the first time Bruce brought him here, and all the times afterward. But he won't. Dick won't go searching for grief with the memories of his parents, and he won't burden Damian with his grief about Bruce. So Dick tells Damian this instead. 

"Why, it's the happiest place on earth! Come on, Damian! We haven't even been to half the rides already!"

And even though Damian is grumbling all the way to the next ride, Dick knows that he is enjoying himself. Well, until he managed to _somehow_ initiate a brawl on the very streets of Disney World.

It’s Damian, after all.

(Gotham Gazette, or more precisely, Vicky Vale, runs an article titled ‘Wayne Heir, or Trouble Maker?’, with a picture of Damian’s enraged expression. Dick still can’t bring himself to regret the trip.)

***

Dick wants to run to the Bunker and put his suit on. Unfortunately, the Commissioner is there, and he still needs the plausible deniability about Batman’s identity, so Dick can’t just run off to the Bunker.

Damian can handle himself. Dick knows that Damian can handle himself. Honestly, the ones that Dick should be worried about are the kidnappers. Dick knows full well what Damian is capable about. But he is still worried about Damian. (He’s never going to not worry about Damian.)

“Commissioner? News?”

Commissioner Gordon just grimaces. “I’m not going to lie to you, Richard. You used to be a cop. You know how it is.”

Dick grimaces back. He can still remember how those kidnapping cases go. This can last hours. “Still no news, then?”

“As soon as there is news, you’ll be the first to know.”

Dick wants so badly to just rescue Damian as Batman. The kidnappers are not even _that_ skilled. As Batman, he can just sneak in and out in a couple of minutes. Hell, as Robin, Damian can free himself as easy as breathing. He certainly has the skills.

But right now, Dick is Dick Grayson, civilian and a concerned big brother. And Damian is a helpless kid in danger. (Damian is very rarely helpless.) So Dick went along with all the bureaucracy and the negotiations. He went along with what the GCPD wants him to do, all while planning how he can brush them off and went as Batman to save Damian.

Finally, after hours, the GCPD managed to rescue Damian. They are not as incompetent as Dick thought. (Dick has a suspicion that Damian was already controlling the kidnappers inside and was just stalling to punish Dick for his lateness. It won’t be outside of Damian’s capabilities.)

When the GCPD finally finished apprehending all the kidnappers and checking out Damian, Dick runs to Damian and wraps him in his arms. It is not all show, even. He is genuinely happy to have Damian by his side again, and not inside that damned building.

“Tt. I am perfectly fine, Grayson.”

“Yeah, I know. Indulge me for a minute, will you?”

Damian huffs, but allows Dick to hug him. Then the sounds of cameras snapping pictures make Damian stiffened again. “Grayson!” he whines. “Enough! There’ll be pictures of us in the paper tomorrow!”

Dick just hugs him tighter. “That’s the point, Damian.”

The Gazette published a picture of them hugging with the kidnappers being handcuffed by the GCPD in the background. It was even quite nice.

***

 

**Author's Note:**

> check out my tumblr (huilian.tumblr.com)


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